Paintball Impact Grenade

ABSTRACT

A non-lethal hand grenade having a flexible resilient tube containing a pressurized colored liquid, with a impact actuated trigger device, which overcome the deficiencies of known prior art by offering a reliable, safe, and cost effective device that never fail to goes off when is thrown towards a intended target. 
     The trigger device relies on the flexibility of the tube to keep the device safe to be thrown without going off until a minimal impact happens; The impact actuates a device which releases the trigger cap that keep the resilient tube blocked, allowing the pressurized liquid to be sprayed, marking anyone and anything about twenty feet of the point of impact. This non-reusable grenade is safe, reliable, environmental safe, easy to manufacture and operate, very similar in design and use to a real military grenade.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is related to and claims priority to U.S. ProvisionalPatent Application for “Paintball Impact Grenade”, Ser. No. 61437888,Filled on Jan. 31, 2011 by the present inventor which is herebyexpressly incorporated into this application by this reference thereto.

BACKGROUND Prior Art

The following is tabulation of some prior art that presently appearsrelevant:

US PATENT DOCUMENTS

4,932,672 Jun-90 Tippmann 5,538,456 Jul-96 Liu et al. 5,590,886 Jan-97Lush 5,831,199 Nov-98 McNulty, Jr. et al. 5,877,448 Mar-99 Denton et al.5,967,916 Oct-99 Robeson 5,975,983 Nov-99 Panec 5,996,503 Dec-99 Woodallet al. 6,210,709 Apr-01 Laba et al 6,223,658 May-01 Rosa et al.6,242,489 Jun-01 Pinney 6,289,819 Sep-01 Dolderer 6,302,028 Oct-01Guillot-Ulmann et al. 6,352,032 Mar-02 Pinney 6,386,113 May-02 Pinney6,450,100 Sep-02 Carson 6,453,819 Sep-02 Coates 6,532,947 Mar-03 Rosa etal. 6,581,521 Jun-03 Dixon et al. 6,598,807 Jul-03 Anzalone 6,688,234Feb-04 Huber et al. 2004/0127311 Jul-04 Brock 6,871,594 Mar-05 Estrella2006/0156943 Jul-06 Tippmann

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a Paintball grenade filled with anon-toxic washable colored liquid, used on Paintball games with a impactactivated trigger.

PRIOR ART

The sport of paintball is a popular game which the players simulates acombat between two teams, using guns designed for this purpose called“paintball markers”; The paintball markers fires frangible projectiles(paintballs) filled with a non-toxic washable paint using a compressedgas supply. After being struck by a paintball, the player is consideratedead, and is out of the game.

A variety of guns for firing paintballs was developed to improve thisgame that have increased in popularity, also other type of non-lethalmarking devices are also developed. Such devices include land mines,grenades, bazookas, mortars, tanks, and many anti-personal and anti-tankweapons. The paintball hand grenades is a non-lethal device that isthrown towards an intend target, marking everyone in the area andeliminating them from the game.

Different types of hand grenades have been developed such as reusablegas powered grenades, pyrotechnics, chemical reaction grenades,exploding grenades, and the pressurized elastic tube grenades.

The reusable grenades have some undesirable problems with include:

High cost manufacturing, complicated to operate, to reload, to recoveryparts and difficult to cleaning up, after use. Pyrotechnics and chemicalones are not often used, because of safety concerns. The most used andcost effective are the pressurized elastic tube grenades.

The known ones are made of some kind of elastic material, usually anatural rubber tube filled with a colored liquid, which has one end ofthe tube definitely blocked or tied by a crimping element such as wiretie, and another side is blocked with a plastic ball and a cap that issupposed to be dislodged from the tube, by the impact of the grenadewith an object, allowing the discharge of the colored fluid.

Because all the pressurized tube grenades are made the same way, allhave the same undesirable problems; they only work if you throw themvery fast against a solid surface. The impact should be strong to createenough pressure inside of the tube to dislodge the protective cap andthe ball that block the exit; It is not always possible to find aperfect solid surface when you playing on the woods, or in plywoodscenarios, or even on inflated bunkers; If you throw on the floor byyour opponent, it usually doesn't go off, and you give to your opponenta new grenade to use against you or anyone of your team.

To make these pressurized paintball grenades more reliable, is necessaryto make a device able to trigger by impact.

Considering that is not reusable, it needs to be inexpensive tomanufacture, safe to use, and environmental safe; should be light andinexpensive for the consumer.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An impact actuated paintball grenade filled with a pressurized non-toxicwashable colored liquid, comprising of a flexible resilient tube havingone side permanently blocked by an crimping element and the other sideblocked by an impact actuated device which releases itself from theresilient tube on impact, allowing the discharge of colored liquid in anunpredictable pattern marking the intended target.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of an assembled paintball impactgrenade.

FIG. 2 shows disassembled components of a paintball impact grenade.

FIG. 3 Shows the disassembled components of a trigger cap.

FIG. 4 Shows the how the components of a trigger cap are assembled.

FIG. 5 shows assembled trigger cap.

FIG. 6 is an illustrative view of a trigger device.

FIG. 7 shows disassembled components of an optional embodiment.

FIG. 8 shows an optional trigger cap which is one piece only.

FIG. 9 is an illustrative view of an optional trigger device.

FIG. 10 Shows how the resilient tube is bended and closed before installthe trigger device.

FIG. 11 shows the resilient tube with the trigger device installed.

FIG. 12 shows how the resilient tube is filled with pressurized coloredfluid.

FIG. 13 is an illustrative view of an assembled paintball impactgrenade.

FIG. 14 shows the grenade at first moment of impact, trigger cap islunched off.

FIG. 15 shows the grenade at the moment of impact; the trigger cap comesoff, releasing the trigger device case.

FIG. 16 shows the grenade at the moment of impact, the pressurized fluidforces the tube to get straight.

FIG. 17 shows the grenade at moment of impact, spraying all thepressurized fluid.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The paintball impact grenade is illustrate on FIG. 1 to FIG. 17, and isformed from a flexible resilient tubular material 100 filled with acolored fluid which is injected inside of the tube using about sixtypounds per square inches of pressure, causing the expansion of the wallsof the tube as shown on FIG. 12; This resilient tube has one end sealedby a crimping member such as wire tie 102 or a metal crimp (not shown),and at the other end it is coil on itself, compressed and sealed by aright trigger case 105 and left trigger case 104, creating the springaction needed to keep the trigger cap (FIG. 5) in place. The righttrigger case 105 and left trigger case 104 is kept together one side bya retaining ring 103 and the other side by a Wire formed trigger lever110 which have attached a nut 109 and protected by a nut rubber cap 108forming a trigger cap as shown on FIG. 5.

The FIG. 1 shows the assembled paintball impact grenade of thisembodiment, the length of the resilient tube 100 is compatible with theamount of fluid that will be injected on it, usually four to twelveounces; the outside diameter is from three-eights of an inch, to halfinch.

FIG. 2 shows the disassembled paintball impact grenade of thisembodiment. FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 shows how the nut rubber cap 108, the nut109 and the wire formed trigger lever 110 that are tied or glue togetherto form a single part of the trigger device as shown on FIG. 5.

FIG. 6 Shows an illustrative exploded view of the trigger device withall its parts and how it is mounted.

The process of manufacture this paintball impact grenade follows thesteps:

A) First measure and cut the resilient tube 100;B) Glue or tie the wire formed trigger lever 110 the nut rubber cap 108,and nut 109 together forming a trigger cap shown on FIG. 5.C) Insert a pulling ring 106 on the safety pin 107.D) Coil two or three turns of the tube on itself as shown on FIG. 10;E) Mount the right trigger case 104 and left trigger case 105;F) Insert the retaining ring 103 to hold the two parts of the case (104,105) on resilient tube 100;G) Compress the resilient tube 100 by squeezing the two parts of thecase (104 and 105) together.H) Attach a trigger cap on it and insert the safety pin.I) Inject the measured amount of fluid on the resilient tube 100 asshown on FIG. 12J) Bend the end of the resilient tube 100 and seal it using a wire tie102 or any crimping member as shown on FIG. 13.

After assembled the grenade is safe until the safety pin 107 is removedby the player using a pulling ring 106, holding down the trigger capkeep it on its place until the grenade is thrown.

FIG. 14 shows what happen when the paintball impact grenade object ofthis application hits an intended target.

At the first moment of the impact, the trigger cap 108 is dislodge fromthe trigger device allowing the right trigger case 104 and left triggercase 105 to be pushed away by the spring action offered by the resilienttube 100 which was coiled and squeezed inside of them as shown on FIG.15. FIG. 16 shows when the resilient tube 100 that was coiled andsqueezed between the right trigger case 104 and left trigger case 105,start to uncoil by the pressure of the fluid inside of it.

FIG. 17 shows the paintball impact grenade expelling all the pressurizedcolored fluid, on an unpredictable pattern, marking anything and anyonearound its point of impact.

In another embodiment the trigger device can be assembled using theparts as shown on FIG. 7; Instead of use three components glued togetherto build a trigger cap as shown on FIG. 4 and FIG. 5, this trigger cap111 is made of plastic or any material that can be formed as shown onFIG. 8;

The process to manufacture on this embodiment is:

A) First measure and cut the resilient tube 100;B) Insert a pulling ring 106 on the safety pin 107.C) Coil two or three turns of the tube 100 on itself as shown on FIG.10;D) Mount the right trigger case 105 and left trigger case 104;E) Compress the resilient tube 100 by squeezing the two parts of thecase (104 and 105) together.F) Insert the o-ring 103G) Attach a trigger cap 111 on it and insert the safety pin.H) Inject the measured amount of fluid on the resilient tube 100 asshown on FIG. 12I) Bend the end of the resilient tube 100 and seal it using a wire tie102 or any crimping member to as shown on FIG. 13.

REFERENCE NUMERALS

-   100 Resilient tube.-   102 Wire tie.-   103 Retaining ring.-   104 Right trigger case.-   105 Left trigger case.-   106 Pulling Ring.-   107 Safety Pin.-   108 Nut rubber cap.-   109 Nut.-   110 Wire formed trigger lever.-   111 Optional trigger unit.-   112 Optional Hinged right trigger case.-   113 Optional Hinged left trigger case.-   114 Colored fluid or washable paint.

Although the present disclosure has been described with reference toparticular means, materials and embodiments, from the foregoingdescription, one skilled in the art can easily ascertain the essentialcharacteristics of the invention and various changes and modificationsmay be made to adapt the various uses and characteristics withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the invention.

OPERATION

The operation of this non-lethal hand grenade is very similar to a realmilitary grenade. The player holds the trigger cap 108, 110 to keep itin place and remove the safety pin 107 using the pulling ring 106.

Throw the grenade towards intended target.

What is claimed is:
 1. An impact actuated paintball grenade filled witha pressurized non-toxic washable colored liquid, comprising of aflexible resilient tube having one side permanently blocked by acrimping element and the other side blocked by an impact actuateddevice.
 2. An impact actuated paintball grenade of claim 1 wherein theimpact actuated device releases one side of the resilient tube on impactallowing the discharge of colored liquid.
 3. An impact actuatedpaintball grenade of claim 1 wherein the impact actuated device usespart of the resilient tube as an active component on it.
 4. An impactactuated device of claim 3 wherein the spring action required on deviceis provided by squeezing or stretching part of the resilient tube.
 5. Animpact actuated non-lethal hand grenade filled with a non-toxic washablecolored liquid, comprising of a flexible resilient tube having one sidepermanently closed by a crimping element and the other side blocked byan impact actuated device.
 6. An impact actuated non-lethal hand grenadeof claim 5 wherein the impact actuated device is totally or partiallydislodged of the resilient tube before the discharge of colored liquid.7. A impact activated trigger for paintball grenades, comprised of twoor more parts of any non-resilient material, attached at least to oneend of a resilient tube or bladder to close it.
 8. A impact activatedtrigger for paintball grenades of claim 7 wherein on impact, the triggeris actuated reliasing the resilient tube or bladder end, allowing thedischarge of the colored liquid.